Musings on Changes
by antra
Summary: Thoughts happening during Season 8. Yes, THAT Season


**Musings on Changes**_  
As much as I want to ignore Season 8, sometimes I have to acknowledge what was written after the writers had too much circle time or a bad batch or something…  
As you can imagine by my comment, nothing belongs to me._

* * *

Hyde knew that he alone was responsible that his whole life was in shambles.

Not only didn't he have the woman he loved by his side, he was married to Sam.

He didn't really have a choice. For him it didn't matter that he had consumed his own weight in alcohol before he married a virtual stranger, the fact alone that he married her, meant he had at least to try. He would be exactly like Edna and Bud otherwise.

He mustered the engagement ring he had bought for Jackie, the ring he had taken with him to Chicago after she had went away without waiting for his answer.

He had always wanted a family for himself; he just never expected to have the opportunity. First there was the idea that he would end up in prison. And with Jackie…. he never thought they would be together as long as they did. They had nothing in common, were on opposites end of every spectrum imaginable.

And Jackie had always been Kelso's girl. There was always this little part in his mind that told him it was just a matter of time before she would leave him and go back to Kelso, himself being just a temporary solution.

He knew he was white trash like his family... at least like the white part of his family. Perhaps him ending up with a stripper was just how it should be, the universe reminded him of his place again.

It could be worse. OK, he was married to Sam while he still loved Jackie, but Sam was nice. She looked after him, did these little things that were completely foreign for him, like bringing him something to drink or setting his cigarettes on the side next to the cot when he lost them again. Perhaps he wasn't happy about the identity of his wife, but he felt comfortable being married.

He sighed softly and put the ring back in the cigar box above a few pictures of Jackie and him together, their prom picture and the answer of the University of Wisconsin. Jackie had made him apply; he never told her that they had sent him an acceptance letter.

He put the box back in the corner where you couldn't see it, together with his country records.

The only way he could take this was by burning Jackie.

He knew she didn't understand it and hurt but after she had broken all of his shields this was his last layer of defense.

So he was unhappy.

Life went on.

* * *

He was furious with Sam. How could she have done something like this, invading his life when she knew perfectly well that they weren't legally married.

All this time he could have been surrounded by Jackie, her smell, her taste, they could have been engaged by now, her planning the perfect wedding and him indulgently letting her making everyone but himself insane.

At least it saved Hyde of being divorced before being 20.

He knew he didn't have a chance with Jackie anymore, to many burns, too much hurt and her thinking every strange stripper was more interesting for him than her.

At least she was here, he could still see her.

When she finally decided to get together with Fez his mind paused for a few moments.

Fez

Fez was more a male girlfriend than anything else she couldn't really be in love with him.

So he waited and baited his time.

There was a perverse pleasure when he saw their problems, making clear that this couple would never stay together.

They even had problems with their first kiss. If that wasn't telling he didn't knew anything else.

* * *

A new year, a new decade.

He always thought he would either be dead or in prison by now, his mother had made clear what she thought of him and his potential future.

He sat on the chair in the cold in front of the kitchen, wearing a thin jacket and staring in the snow.

Jackie came out of the kitchen and saw him staring into nothing.

She contemplated going back inside, away from his burns.

She mustered him, completely lost in thought and settled herself on the second chair.

Perhaps they could start again, something civil.

They had never been friends, they could try that.

"What are you thinking about?"

Her voice was soft, a careful test how he would react.

Steven realized he wasn't alone and recognized the voice but didn't look to her.

"Edna."

She furrowed her forehead, wondering why he thought of his mother now.

"Why?"

He was silent, weighing if he could tell her.

"It's 1980. Edna always said that if I was lucky I would be long in prison by now."

The shudder that gripped her had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with what he had said.

Even when they were together they didn't talk about Edna or Bud, the topic was carefully ignored, like they had ignored talking about her parents.

He had driven her to prison so she could talk to her father a few times but they didn't really talk about parents.

They both had the Formans, she had Bob and he had WB nowadays, it was enough for them.

It didn't mean that from time to time there weren't moments when something came back up, like now this reflection about Edna.

"If you were lucky?" She managed the question without shaking voice.

"You know, prison or dead."

He said that with the easy acceptance that made clear he heard it often enough to not be disturbed by it.

And that he had really believed it. He was surprised to be where he was.

A small part of her remembered that her current boyfriend was somebody else, that she shouldn't do this, the big part of her that never got over Steven, that would never get over Steven took hold over her and she kissed him.

It went from the soft peck to distract him from his thoughts to the heavy, intense no barrels held kisses without either of them thinking about it.

* * *

Fez stood in the kitchen waiting for Mrs Forman to finish making his sandwich.

He loved the new decade already, he was not alone for once. The woman he worshipped from the moment they first met was his.

He locked to Jackie and saw her outside on one of the chairs talking with Hyde.

"It will be a glorious year Mrs Kitty." He told her of his plans to go to beauty school so he could one day have his own salon when he looked back to check on Jackie.

He stopped speaking.

Mrs Forman looked up from her task to see Jackie and Steven in a desperate full blown kiss, both seeming to want to meld with each other through osmosis.

This was what Fez had wanted with Jackie when they couldn't even get their first kiss right, this effortless sinchronicity.

"Ai, she will never be mine Mrs Kitty."

She laid a hand on his shoulder. While she felt with Fez she was happy to see Jackie and her Steven together, both of them had fitted so well.

"Sweetie, perhaps you are meant to be friends but nothing more than that."

Fez looked to his girlfriend and his friend.

And he let go. He always knew that this couldn't last, that Jackie was for Hyde.

"You will find somebody for yourself. Somebody who will be perfect for you, sweetie."

Funnily enough when Kitty Forman said it he believed her.


End file.
